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February 10, 2012

As a Virtual World owner-to-be, I think about things like the future of my VW and about the metaverse as a whole. I can't help it. After all, without the metaverse I wouldn't be able to build Excelsior Station to begin with. So, the future and success of the metaverse is something I think about.

And it is my thought that adoption by the average person is a huge factor in that future. And I don't mean those of us setting up the VWs. I am talking about the people who visit. The shoppers and gawkers, the gamers and players, the talkers and dancers. All the different people that enjoy virtual worlds but aren't interested in owning one. The non-geek.

Then I look at those other virtual worlds out there, the VWs that are already commonly accepted by the average person. The MMO games. World of Warcraft, EVE Online, Call of Duty and hundreds more. I think what makes them a good model here is the fact that they are all set-up the same way that our VWs are when it comes to the software, with server-side and client-side software that interact over the Internet.

And the most popular MMOs out there involve combat and role-play.

I don't have the interest in educating or researching or profit making, I'm in this for the enjoyment. And, it seems to me, that those big MMO's are providing a lot of enjoyment to a lot of people. Not to mention making tons of money. And that's where I differ from those MMOs. They are providing enjoyment for the purpose of making money. My theory is that you can provide the enjoyment for the sake of the enjoyment, and the money will follow. At least, enough to keep the doors open.

But this article isn't about money. Its not even about enjoyment except as how it relates to gaining acceptance by the masses. And, while I enjoy the social aspects of the metaverse, I do enjoy a good bit of combat. And so do millions of others, given the success of those MMOs.

So, let's make it official, Excelsior Station will be supporting RolePlay and Combat.

I also want to organize a network of virtual worlds that will also support RP-Combat, and will connect using HyperGrid/InterWorld. To set up some sort of guidelines, work on a commonly accepted combat system, and more. I already have ideas on this and will present them in future articles. For now, I just want to put that out there for discussion and brain-storming.

To get things started, I recently came across an Open Sourced combat system called Myriad RPG [http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/User:Allen_Kerensky/Myriad_Lite_Preview_4]. I found it on the SL Wiki, of all places. I had already begun work on a system of my own, but, to be honest, Myriad is better work. The Myriad RPG System was designed and written Ashok Desai and is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 UK: England and Wales. The scripts, which comprise the The Myriad Lite software, are under Copyright (c) 2011 by Allen Kerensky (OSG/SL). The Myriad RPG System has an adventure/quest system as well, named the Baroun's Adventure Machine, copyright (c) 2008-2011 by Baroun Tardis (SL). Myriad Lite and Baroun's Adventure Machine licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike-Non-Commercial 3.0 Unported.

Frankly, this is a huge start. It includes HUD, meter, melee, firearm, armour, healing, targets and a bit more. Not as object, but the scripts themselves. I am adding pages for those scripts and will be contacting Ashok Desai and Baroun Tardis to see if they are still working on Myriad. In the meantime, here's a system that can be used everywhere. One that can be improved upon and developed further. I would like to see some sort of resource use included, like mining ore and cutting wood. And also to include vehicles and artillery within the same system. One HUD, one meter, all scenarios.

And yes, they are continuing work on the scripts with a version 5 now available in SL and on OSGrid. I'll post those as soon as I get them.